The present invention relates to seats for use by children in vehicles, and particularly, to seats having child-restraining harness belts. More particularly, the present invention relates to a child vehicle seat with a child-restraint harness-adjustment mechanism.
Many child car seats are formed to include several pairs of shoulder belt-receiving apertures in a back wall of the car seat so that the car seat may be adapted by the user to restrain children of different sizes. To accommodate a smaller child, the two shoulder belts are removed from an upper pair of belt-receiving apertures and are threaded through one of the lower pairs of belt-receiving apertures.
As the child grows, it becomes necessary to enlarge the car seat harness to accommodate the growing child. To enlarge the car seat harness, the caregiver must "rethread" the shoulder belt by first removing the shoulder belt from the "lowest" set of shoulder belt-receiving apertures formed in the back wall of the car seat. Then the belt must be threaded through one of the other "higher" sets of belt-receiving apertures formed in a higher portion of the back wall of the car seat. During rethreading, the free end of each shoulder belt must be pulled through and out of its "original" belt-receiving aperture formed in the back wall and then inserted into and threaded through a newly selected belt-receiving aperture that is either higher or lower on the back wall relative to the original belt-receiving aperture.
It is inconvenient and bothersome to uncouple the two shoulder belts from the back wall each time it is necessary to adjust the size of the child-restraint harness to enable the shoulder belts to be threaded through higher or lower shoulder belt-receiving apertures formed in the back wall of the car. Many caregivers would welcome a car seat that is adaptable to hold infants, toddlers, and juveniles and, in particular, is adaptable to adjust the size of the child-restraint harness quickly and easily to accommodate children of various sizes in the child car seat without uncoupling the shoulder belts from the back wall.
In accordance with the present invention, a child-restraint apparatus includes a seat adapted to seat a child and a multi-segment, continuous body strap adapted to pass through apertures formed in the seat so that some segments of the continuous body strap extend across a forward-facing portion of a seat back included in the seat to restrain the child situated in the seat and other segments of the continuous body strap extend across a rearward-facing portion of the seat back to anchor the body strap to the seat. A buckle unit is provided to couple the segments of the body strap that extend across the forward-facing portion of the seat back to a seat bottom also included in the seat.
In preferred embodiments, the body strap is made of an elongated single strip of material having first and second ends and a strap buckle is coupled to the first end. The multi-segment body strap includes, in series, a first segment having the first end, second, third, fourth, and fifth segments, and a sixth segment having the second end.
To couple the body strap to the seat, the body strap is passed through spaced-apart apertures formed in the seat bottom and through a selected pair of apertures formed in the seat back. There are several pairs of apertures formed in the seat back, each pair located at a different height above the seat bottom. The body strap passes through the uppermost pair of belt-receiving apertures formed in the seat back so that the child-restraint device is always "set up" to accommodate a large child in the seat. The second end of the body strap is passed through the strap buckle that is coupled to the first end of the body strap and then moved to place the strap buckle along the body strap at a position between the fifth and sixth segments.
Once the body strap is coupled to the seat, the second segment is arranged to embrace the left shoulder of a child seated on the seat, the fourth segment is arranged to embrace the right shoulder of a child seated on the seat, and the first, fifth, and third segments cooperate to define an X-shaped anchor embracing both of the rearward-facing portion of the seat back and the downwardly facing portion of the seat bottom. The first and fifth segments cooperate to define a first leg of the X-shaped anchor and the third segment defines a second leg of the X-shaped anchor that is arranged to lie between the first leg and the seat back.
The buckle unit includes a crotch strap coupled to the seat bottom and a latch member coupled to the free end of the crotch strap. The buckle unit also includes a first latch plate coupled to the body strap to slide along the second segment and releasably engage the latch member and a second latch plate coupled to the body strap to slide along the fourth segment and releasably engage the latch member. The second and fourth segments of the body strap and the crotch strap cooperate to define a 5-point harness once the first latch plate on the second segment and the second latch plate on the fourth segment arc "snapped" into engagement with the latch member on the crotch strap.
The seat also includes a body strap mount coupled to the seat back to grasp "middle" portions (i.e., loops) of the second and fourth segments that are pushed "back" through other lower pairs of shoulder belt-receiving apertures formed in the seat back below the uppermost pair of apertures without ever removing "upper" portions of the second and fourth segments from the uppermost pair of shoulder belt-receiving apertures formed in the seat back in order to change the effective "size" of the child-restraint harness established by the body strap. Thus, the child-restraint apparatus of the present invention is adapted to adjust the size of the child-restraint harness to accommodate children of various sizes without having to uncouple the body strap from the seat.
Additional features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.